Action clown



March 14, 1961 CLARK 2,974,440

ACTION CLOWN Filed July 9, 1958 FTsJ JNVEN TOR. AL VETTA CLARK United tates Patent ACTION CLOWN Alvetta Clark, 1524 Marion St., North Little Rock, Ark.

Filed July 9, 1958, Ser. No. 747,471

2 Claims. (Cl. 46-118) This invention relates to amusement devices and more particularly to a clown doll.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an animated action clown doll which is extremely amusing in appearance and action, can be selectively actuated to emit a sound, and which includes manually operated means for eifecting movement of the arms.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an animated clown of the above type having feet which include suction means for securing the doll upon a flat surface.

Other objects of the invention are to provide an action clown bearing the aboveobjects in mind which is of simple construction, has a minimum number of parts, is inexpensive to manufacture and efficient in operation.

For other objects and for a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view, with parts broken away, of an action clown made in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the clown shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of certain parts of the clown shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged transverse cross sectional view taken along line 44 of Figure 1.

Referring now more in detail to the drawing, an animatedclown doll made in accordance with the present invention is shown to include a hollow main body portion 12 having substantially rigid legs 14 at one end and a substantially rigid head 16 and pair of substantially rigid arms 15 at the opposite end. Each leg 14 includes a foot 18 having a downwardly opening cavity 19 which serves to exhaust air in response to a downward pressure thereon so as to create a suction-like effect for securing the doll upon a flat surface.

Each side of the hollow main body portion 12 defines an arm receiving opening 20, into which an extension 21 of each such arm 15 extends. A tension spring 23 secures the inwardly facing ends of the extensions 21 together for relative rotational movement with respect to each other and with respect to the main body 12. A crank arm 25 is secured to each such extension 21, the outermost end of which is secured to one end of a rod 26 which selectively effects actuation thereof. The opposite end of each such arm rod 26 is supported upon a block 27 within the lower portion of the main body 12 and terminates in a button 28. A voice box 30 intermediate the blocks 27 emits an audible sound in response to a squeezing or pressing action upon the flexible stomach portion of the main body 12.

In actual use, the clown doll is placed upon any stationary flat surface and secured thereto by means of the aforementioned suction action of the feet 18. By depressing the main flexible stomach portion of said body member 12 to the compressed position 1211 illustrated in Figure 2, the motion is transmitted to the rods 26 which effect a rearward swinging movement of the arms 15 to a slightly raised position opposite to the position shown by broken lines by 1501, while also causing the sound box 30 to emit a sound. Through various similar actions, the arms can be either individually or simultaneously actuated in this manner.

While various changes may be made in the detail construction, it shall be understood that such changes shall be within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An action clown which may be afiixed in a stationary manner to some flat stationary support comprising, in combination, a hollow one piece body member, a pair of arms, a pair of substantially rigid legs formed integral at one end of said main body member, a head formed integral at the opposite end of said main body member, said legs having feet shaped flexible suction cups formed integral with the lower extremities thereof constitutingsurface attaching means, the upper portion of said hollow body member having openings at opposite sides thereof, the upper extremities of each of said arms having extensions with free ends projecting at right angles therefrom, each of said projections rotatably received within one of said openings of said hollow body member, a single coil tension spring secured to and extending between the free ends of said extensions, manually operable link means within the stomach portion of said hollow body member for selectively effecting pivotal movement of said arms by applying pressure manually to the stomach portion of said hollow body member, said link means consisting of a pair of crank arms each integrally connected at one end thereof with the free end of one of said arm extensions, a push rod pivotally connected at the opposite ends of each of said crank arms and retractably supported by blocks located within the stomach portion of said main body member, the lower ends of said push rods being bent outwardly and extending through said blocks terminating with integral buttons thereon, whereby manual pressure applied upon said stomach portion of said main body effects movement of said buttons and said push rods and pivotal movement of said arms associated therewith.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein a voice box is supported between said blocks within said main body member whereby manual pressure applied to said body member eifects actuation of said box which emits an audible sound in response to said actuation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain 1915' 

